Ferraria parva Goldblatt & J.C.Manning

Plants mostly 80-150 mm high, excluding basal leaves. Stem branched near base and in upper part, lower half often partly exposed; cataphylls and sheath of lowermost leaf pale. Leaves unifacial, basal 2 or 3 ± linear, usually exceeding spathes, 3-5 mm wide, upper leaves subtending branches lanceolate, spreading, shorter and wider than basal, mostly 4-6 mm wide, margins and main vein not evident when alive; non-flowering plants with 2 or 3 linear leaves, oval in cross section. Rhipidia 2-flowered; spathes pale green, apices slightly hooked, inner 45-65 mm long, often inflated with age, margins transparent, outer spathe ± half as long as inner, often diverging in upper 1/3. Flowers on pedicels 18-20 mm long; spotted with dark brown in a dull yellow, light red-brown or pale greenish blue background, margins crisped, buff-to khaki-coloured, sweetly scented of jasmine and coconut, tepal claws forming a narrow cup ± 8 mm deep, ± 7 mm wide at rim; outer tepals 18-22 x 8-10 mm, claws 7-8 mm long with a pouch-like bilobed nectary in lower midline; inner tepal slightly shorter and ± half as wide, limbs slightly reflexed, inner more so than outer. Filaments united in a column ± 6 mm long, free in upper ± 1.5 mm; anther thecae initially parallel, later divaricate, ± 3 mm long at anthesis, later ± 2/3 as long. Ovary spindle-shaped, 12-15 mm long, with a sterile beak up to 7 mm long; style branches ± 2 mm long, forked in upper half, prominently fringed; stigmas narrow, at lateral ends of style branches, arching forward. Capsules ovoid-oblong, 15-20 mm long, with beak up to 2-7 mm long. Seeds angular, smooth, shiny, golden-brown, mostly 5-sided, facets smooth or slightly wrinkled.